


pirates heart

by Kairri_rin



Category: Captain America, Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU Pirates, Alternate Universe, Darcy is AWESOME, Minor Angst, Multi, Steve is a dummy, minor mentions of miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2020-11-28 11:28:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20965808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairri_rin/pseuds/Kairri_rin
Summary: "Darcy?" She was probably the last person he had expected to bump into at a place like this. He couldn't quite keep his surprise and disbelief from his tone and her face morphed in front of his eyes. Her surprise was forced from her expression, replaced by one that Steve had never expected to see directed at him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t foresee this being updated often. And it will not be long. I’m currently working on a brand new, pretty long Darcy/Steve/Bucky.  
Which I need a beta reader for, if anyone is interested. I’d love to redo a few of my previous projects too. So if anyone wants to beta for me, just let me know, i’ve Got plenty of stuff. Lol. 
> 
> If you like this, let me know, I live for comments/kudos.

"St-Steve?" The small woman in front of him stuttered in surprise. He almost hadn't recognized her; in her frilly ball gown, her hair twisted in intricate knots around her head, her face carefully covered in more make up than she had ever been comfortable wearing in the past. The jewels around her throat glittered in the light, bringing Steve's eye to the elegant curve of her throat. The chain of an old, plain necklace drew his gaze down to her chest, where it disappeared into her ample cleavage that she was trying to hide under her corset and many layers of dress. The years had been good to her.  
"Darcy?" She was probably the last person he had expected to bump into at a place like this. He couldn't quite keep his surprise and disbelief from his tone and her face morphed in front of his eyes. Her surprise was forced from her expression, replaced by one that Steve had never expected to see directed at him. She had a polite smile on her face, but her eyes were hard, annoyed. She had adopted that expression many times over the years that he had known her, always toward rich men twice her age, trying to get on her good side only because of who her father was. To anyone who didn't know her, it was an innocent enough expression, but to those who did know her, it promised trouble. He flinched back visibly as her eyes met his and her polite smile turned into more of a sneer.  
"Captain Rogers" She said coolly, nodding her head slightly at him and moving to pass by him.  
"Wait! Darce!" He grabbed her arm lightly to stop her from moving. Her posture stiffened at his touch and he flinched away again, bringing his hand back to his side.  
"Yes Captain? Is there something you need?" Her words were ground out, annoyed.  
"It's nice to see you again, Lady Darcy" Steve straightened, posture almost as stiff as Darcy's, his voice cooling and becoming the overly polite tone he used exclusively with the Lords and Ladies he dealt with. She nodded her head stiffly at him.  
"A pleasure" she replied curtly as she moved away from him as swiftly as she could without out full out running. Steve cursed himself under his breath as he continued to move through the crowd of finely dressed dancers to the door of the ballroom, remembering exactly why he was making hasty escape from the party.  
Another figure blocked his way. He was shorter than Steve by more than a few inches, dressed head to toe in finer clothing than any Steve had probably seen before, but his expression was dark and figure imposing despite being dwarfed by the man he was glaring at.  
"Captain Rogers. I didn't expect you to show" he voice was cool, almost bored, but Steve could recognize the anger in his eyes. He knew this man almost as well as he knew the man's daughter.  
"Tony." Steve had expected he would see the other man here, Tony always had been fond of big parties and the governors ball was one of the largest. He had expected it, yet he found he was not prepared for it. He watched, waiting for the man to yell at him, curse at him, maybe even hit him. Yet none of it came. The anger was still simmering in Tony's eyes as he took a calm step forward.  
"Stay away from her" his tone never changed. They were standing side by side now, looking out toward the dance floor, both watching a dark haired beauty flit from partner to partner during a particularly fast dance, flirting and laughing with each one. She never looked toward them.  
"She was devastated, Steve. She thought you were dead when you didn't write back. Was convinced that the only way you'd leave them was if you were dead. And it killed her. It took her a long time to come back to me." The total devastation in the other man's voice made Steve take a step back, his eyes widening as he turned his head harshly to look at his once friend. He looked tired, the anger gone from his face and a cold resignation taking it's place.  
Steve felt his heart clench at the thought of Darcy going through any pain, but even more so because it was pain that he himself had caused. It was pain he had thought he had learned to live with. Pain he swore was worse than the constant sickness he lived with in his youth.  
"Them?" He questioned, confused when tony just blinked up at him, looking just as lost as he felt.  
"The baby, Steve." And if Steve had thought he was in pain before it was nothing compared to what he felt now. His heart was shattering and he felt like he couldn't breathe. He unconsciously looked out over the dance floor, not realizing what he was searching for until his eyes locked with hers. Her brow pinched in what looked like worry and he knew she could still read him the same way he could still read her.  
"Baby?" The word felt heavy on his tongue. Had he left behind a child? Was it one of the ones he had seen running through the gardens earlier with their harried nurse maids running behind them? Any child of Darcy's was sure to be hell fire.  
"She lost it. 3 months after you stopped replying to her. It was a boy. She named him Buchanan." And his whole world came crashing down around him again. His eyes teared up without his permission, his vision going blurry and no longer able to see Darcy, though he kept his gaze focused where she had been. He didn't know, never realized. He thought about all the pain she had gone through, all without him there, and yet she had still named their child after his dead best friend and past lover. He felt it like a punch to the gut.  
"I -I need- I think- Air. Need air." He finally managed, swinging himself around and pushing through the throng of people as politely as he possibly could while he felt like he was two seconds from falling apart. He thought he could almost hear a distant wailing in his ears, the imagined sound heartbreaking in it's sorrow, like he knew Darcy may have sounded after losing their baby, or thinking him dead, or finding out he had left her with not even a word.

The place he found himself was eerily familiar, even as he fought back tears he knew he didn't deserve to let fall. It was her favorite place. A small gazebo, over grown by flowering vines, perfectly placed to overlook the lake just beyond the garden. They'd sat here for hours upon hours. Darcy laying with her head in his lap reading, or with her feet in his lap sewing, or with her hands carding through his hair while he sat in front of her leaning against her legs, or her pacing the small space, talking animatedly and with passion. And almost every time he'd sketch a new portrait of her, making sure to capture every out of place hair, every dirt smudge, every funny face, because it was all of those things that had made her who she was.  
It was a mistake. Coming here. It made fighting back the feelings even worse. It made it harder to deny just how much he missed her. How much he loved her still. Yet he couldn't make himself leave. All he could do was kneel on the ground with his head pressed against the bench, breathing deeply to try to control his emotions. 

When he woke up it was to the feeling of a hand softly carding through his hair. He was no longer laying face first on the bench, but his head was pillowed comfortably in a soft lap.  
"You never told me" he whispered softly into the slightly damp skirt that his head was resting on.  
"I did," he expected her to stop. To move away. To yell and scream. Tell him he didn't deserve the tears he'd spilled, didn't deserve to even come back to this town, let alone back to her home. Not after what he'd done. But instead she just sighed heavily and continued running her hand through his hair.  
"I wrote you letters. But you stopped replying, so eventually I stopped sending them. Once I heard about Bucky I knew what had happened."  
"I thought you'd hate me."  
"I did." She sighed again, "but not for the reason you think." He nodded his head like he understood, but he didn't. She had so many things to hate him for now, when at one point all he did was try to make sure she only had reasons to love him.  
He wasn't sure how long he had been kneeling on the ground, but his body was now protesting the position. He didn't want to move, didn't want to leave the comfort of her touch, the sense of peace that being near Darcy left him with. It took great effort to haul himself and his stiff body up to sit next to her and he almost sighed in relief as she didn't hesitate to lean into him. He wound his arm around her shoulder and it was almost as if he was never gone, as if they could forget the last 7 years had ever even happened.  
He was admiring the way the lightening bugs lit up over the pond and in the trees, like twinkling stars hovering so close to the ground you could catch them, enjoying the feeling of her body against his again, knowing he didn't deserve it but also knowing he may never see her again. He was willing to take anything she was willing to give.  
"I'd like to meet him" The words made Steve pause. He was willing to take anything she was willing to give, right? And she was willingly giving him an excuse to see her another day. So he, selfishly, took it.  
"Okay" he nodded, before turning and pressing his face into her hair "okay."


	2. Chapter 2

It was a hot day. With the sun beating down on them unforgivingly. Darcy tried not to fidget underneath her layers of skirts and petticoats. She had thankfully forgone her corset that morning (to her maid's utter displeasure), but was still cursing the 3 other layers between her skin and the soothing sea breeze coming from the bay. It's not ladylike she thought in the most sarcastic tone of voice she could think up. Well neither was sweating through all her layers! But despite the heat and the general unpleasantness of the sticky air, Darcy forced a polite smile on her face as she twirled her parasol around on her shoulder, glad for the small amount of shade it afforded her.   
Steve could still tell she was uncomfortable, she could see it in his face, in the way his hands fidgeted at his sides, as if needing to find a way to make her more comfortable. It was strange. Walking beside this man that she had loved with her whole heart once, a man who she had been prepared to give up everything for if she needed to. A man who had left her and never looked back with such ease that even now, so many years later, it made her heart clench painfully in her chest. But her smile remained polite and indulgent as Steve attempted to make small talk, becoming increasingly uncomfortable with her silence.   
Darcy was not a silent person, nor was she usually polite. She was known for talking a mile a minute and letting people know exactly what was on her mind. A habit that had gotten her into more trouble over the years than she should have bothered with. But her father was a push over, he let her and her siblings get away with more than most would. Pepper was no better, for all her head shaking and muttered comments about spoiling them, she indulged just as much if not more.   
So Darcy had never quite learned how to keep her mouth shut, Steve had told her many times how her brashness and sarcasm were two of her very best qualities. She could imagine how insane it must be driving him to hear nothing but silence on her end and for a very few seconds her smile wasn't as forced, was just a tad more genuine.   
It didn't take long to reach the end of the dock, Steve held his hand out to help her into the small row boat but Darcy turned to face the sailor already sat in the boat and watched with quiet amusement as the man jumped up to help her himself, causing the boat to rock and splash against the water. Darcy smothered the laugh and mumbled a quiet, demure, thank you to the sailor and sat right in Steve's way, making him struggle to get into the small boat without toppling them all into the water. Turns out she couldn't help being just a little petty.   
She was still unsure of how to act around him. She had expected an extremely different person, had expected an awkwardness between them as if they were strangers who had never met before. Yet he seemed generally the same and it didn't feel awkward to be near him. She found herself still leaning into his touch, still gravitating toward him. She could still read him like an open book, see his emotions play over his face, read his body language like they'd never been apart. It was comforting and the comfort was unnerving.   
She'd thought for years about what she would say to him, how she would act, if she were to ever see him again. Some nights she'd imagine she would turn and walk away, never say a thing. Some night she'd imagine she'd throw herself in his arms and beg him to never leave her again. But most nights had been filled with anger. She'd scream at him. Tell him how destroyed she'd been. Let him know that he was lower than the dirt she walked on. But when she had seen him in that ballroom her mind had blanked and she had forgotten any thing she had ever planned, ever thought of. Seeing the man Steve had left her for, who was the formerly thought-to-be-dead best friend and lover of the man who had left her in one of the worst times of her life, had never been on the list of scenarios. And yet in that moment she felt like she needed to see him, as if she'd never be able to move on if she didn't.   
It had only been a few days, and Darcy had prepared for the pain of seeing the man who, at one point she had thought, stole her future from her. She had prepared for anger. But when she finally managed to scale the rope ladder hanging over the side of the ship and finally laid eyes on him, she felt neither anger nor pain.  
Her eyes found him easily, despite having never met him before. He was as far up in the rigging as one could get, a small basket tied up into the lines, holding what must have been mending equipment for the various ropes and sails. He must have been watching them come because he was standing, staring down at them, one foot balancing precariously on the ropes, the other hanging in dead air, his right hand clutching the ropes in what looked like too loose of a grip to truly be effective, but he wasn't falling so he obviously knew what he was doing. He was bare chested, a thin sheen of sweat covering his tan skin, broad shoulders rippling with muscles as she watched him take careful breaths. His hair was long and wild with the wind, a very light dusting of dark stubble along his cheeks. But what drew the eye the most was the sun glinting off the gleaming silver of his left arm. She was once again thankful for leaving her corset at home as she was having a hard enough time catching her breath without it.   
"What do you think?" She hadn't realized how close Steve had gotten. She could practically feel him at her back, his eyes boring down into her. He sounded both apprehensive and excited.  
"He's magnificent" she managed to breath out, forgetting for a moment how she had been trying to act cool and unaffected toward Steve. She still couldn't manage to tear her eyes away from the man.   
"He looks much different than your drawings" Darcy pointed out, finally turning to face Steve again, but she wished she hadn't at the pained look on his face.   
"He's a different person now."  
"But you still love him."  
"I could never stop."  
"I understand what that's like" Darcy glanced back up toward the rigging, smiling softly as she caught the eye of the man still standing in the same spot, just watching them. Her large skirts swished around her ankles as she walked toward the far side of the ship, looking out toward the open sea. She leaned against the railing and sighed, not looking up as Steve leaned next to her.   
"Remember when I wanted nothing more than to be a mermaid?" Darcy asked suddenly, surprising Steve with her change of subject. He nodded his head at her, a small, amused smile on his face as Darcy turned toward him. For the first time since he'd turned back up in her life she let her guard down, not all the way, but she was already here, already being hurt. She couldn't avoid it, so why pretend?  
"We would sneak to the cove a few miles down" Steve said, looking that way "pack food on the horses and disappear for the entire day. I'd have to drag you out of the water. You insisted that if I let you stay in the water long enough you'd grow gills yourself. I knew you were just trying to be difficult, but it worked to rile me up." He laughed at the memory and Darcy couldn't help but laugh with him. He was beautiful and his laugh washed over her like the waves washing over the shore. It was a sound that reminded her of home, of love, something almost foreign to her now.   
"Back then you were too small to throw me over your shoulder, but I did enjoy getting you to try" Darcy admitted, looking him up and down.   
He was much different than he had been when he had left. She knew he had been tiny and sickly as a child, but he was almost ten years older than her, so when she met him as a teenager he was already a man. A smaller man than most, thin and gangly, not very strong. Back then he was still only a few inches taller than her, though somehow continued to grow for the years they were together until he was finally over 6 feet tall. His many illnesses had gradually decreased through the years until he was no longer in pain and then he actually started putting muscles on until he finally could pick Darcy up and throw her over his shoulder. But the man standing before her was broader shouldered than she remembered, his muscles were no longer thin and corded, but now bulky. She had almost not even recognized him at first when she saw him, but his face was still the same. It was strange to see him so different and yet he still felt so familiar to her.   
Their laughter faded. She glanced behind her. Bucky was still in the rigging, but now he was sitting, facing slightly away, but probably still watching them.   
"It's like that for me, you know" Darcy whispered to the sea, once again smiling sadly.  
Steve's sad smile mirrored hers and for a long moment, they were silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only have half of the next chapter written, so it’s probably gonna be a lot longer than a week before it gets out.


	3. Chapter 3

_"I know I've never met him, he'd been dead for almost 3 years by the time I met Steve, but I knew him. I knew Steve, and I knew his stories of Bucky and the pictures of Bucky. I knew that his heart would always belong to Bucky first."_ Darcy's own words seemed to bounce around in her head as they sat on the ship, her attention no longer on the man beside her.

_"Why would you put yourself through this? Darce, you're just opening an old wound and pouring salt in it."_ Her father had a point. He could occasionally be known to be right about things. But mostly that was Pepper's area.

_"You know me, I've never been quite good at letting things go"_ she'd smiled self deprecatingly at him then. A smile that overtook her face there in the moment too, with the ship rocking gently in the waves and the men on the ship calling out to each other and singing rowdily in the background.

She could feel Steve's elbow pressing into her own as they leaned over the railing watching the ocean. Darcy wanted to get closer, to lean into Steve, to feel him hold her, to let him take her weight and let all her worries go. But even though this was Steve, the only man she'd ever loved, even though he felt like _home_, he was now a stranger.

"Is he going to come down? Or will he be sat in the rigging all day?" She let her gaze flit over her shoulder to the man she came here to meet. Their eyes met easily, despite the distance between them. He looked almost sad, sitting there watching them, no longer even putting up the pretense of being occupied.

Steve looked over his shoulder as well, gazing up at Bucky with a soft smile that all at once filled Darcy with a soft warmth while making her also want to throw herself right off the side of the ship. He used to smile at her that way. So soft and in love, even when she was being a giant pain, goading him purposely to get a reaction from him. Now it was being directed at someone else and she couldn't do a thing about it.

She looked back over the water before Steve could say anything, though he didn't seem to be in a hurry to answer her anyway. A few minutes of silence passed between them before he nudged her with his elbow and jerked his head to get her to turn around. She was just opening her mouth to ask what she was supposed to be looking at when Bucky stood up. His bare torso rippled with muscles as he wrapped a rope around the gleaming silver of his arm and just tossed his body off the wooden platform he had been sitting on. In just seconds he was letting go of the rope entirely, landing on the deck with a somersault and standing immediately, like some sort of acrobatic. It was a feat fit for a man much more lean than the bulky sailor.

Steve was thoroughly amused and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "show off" under his breath. Bucky had a very very slight smirk on his face as he practically prowled the last few feet, stopping just in front of them.

If Darcy had found him magnificent from afar, now he was enchanting. The tan skin of his chest heaved with his breaths, glistening with sweat that made Darcy want to drag her tongue up his throat. His long hair made her want to tangle her fingers in it. His eyes were the most interesting shade of blue she'd ever seen, like the ocean during a storm, and god, those lips. The devil himself must have made this man. He oozed _manliness_ and _sexuality_ out of every pore. She realized too late that she was openly ogling him, but couldn't quite find the strength to stop.

"James Barnes, Miss. pleasure to meet you" he took her hand from where it was hanging limply at her side and raised it to lips. In polite society, the kiss would have lasted a brief second and her hand would have been released immediately. She however, was not _in_ polite society, and Bucky's lips hovered over her hand for a few seconds more than proper, before he trailed them down her fingertips, keeping eye contact with her for every single sexually charged second.

"Darcy Lewis" she purred at him, batting her eyelashes, " the pleasure is _all_ mine". She couldn't help the flirty smile that graced her face as she tightened her fingers around his instead of allowing him to drop her hand. It took surprisingly little effort to manhandle him around so that they were both once again facing out over the railing. She wrapped her arm fake demurely around his naked bicep and gave it a not-so-accidental squeeze as she did.

Steve was watching them with a shit eating grin on his face, the kind that always made Darcy want to rip his clothes right off his body.

She had imagined many scenarios for this moment over the last few days, but none of them had been this sexually charged. She thought it would be awkward, she thought she'd be sad or angry, thought he'd be annoyingly apologetic or smug about Steve choosing him over her. But none of her imaginary scenes had been able to come up with anything close to what she was feeling now.

She'd never been_ this_ attracted to a man she'd just met, even Steve hadn't elicited this type of primal response in her, and she had very very much wanted him right from the moment they had met. But then again, not many men she met were this handsome, or shirtless and glistening. Not many men had a smirk that promised very very naughty things or eyes that could drown a girl. And not for the first time since she’d followed a stricken looking Steve from the party days before, she wondered exactly what she was getting herself into.

She felt a shiver run up her spine as she looked back and forth between Steve and Bucky, who were bracketing her closely on either side, and realized that the situation she found herself in was a hell of a lot more dangerous to her heart than she had ever anticipated. Her smile turned into a naughty smirk and she reached out to pull Steve closer to her, until he had his arm wrapped around her waist, hand laying lightly against the bare skin of Bucky’s hip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, anyone who is reading 2 broke girls and a couple superhero’s, knows that I’m heading into surgery on Friday, so updates on this will probably not come soon. Plus, I’m heavily focusing on 2 Broke Girls. But I do have the next chapter of this planned out, I just need to find time to write it.   
Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
